65 - CURRIN, JOHN (b. 1962) SPECIAL DAY. 1993. Watercolor on paper. 25 x 21 cm. On the reverse: signature, title, and date. PROVENANCE: Galleria Galliani, Genoa; Private collection, Turin. BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Bonami, *Un urlo lungo un giorno*. Kathe Burkhart, John Currin, José A. Hernandez Diez, Tony Oursler, Lorna Simpson, Sue Williams, Galleria Galliani, Genoa, 1994 EXHIBITIONS Galleria Galliani, *A Scream Lasting a Day*, Genoa, May 27–September 30, 1994. Created in 1993, *Special Day* belongs to a crucial phase in John Currin’s early career, when the artist developed the distinctive figurative language that would establish him on the American art scene throughout the 1990s. During these years, Currin focused his artistic exploration primarily on portraiture, creating female figures that straddle observations of everyday life, images drawn from popular culture, and references to the tradition of Western painting. Watercolor plays a significant role within this body of work. In the early 1990s, Currin frequently turned to drawing and techniques on paper as a medium for experimentation, developing images that might precede his paintings but also retain their own autonomy. The speed and transparency of watercolor allowed him greater freedom in distorting the figure and in exploring that ambiguous tension between seduction and alienation that would become a hallmark of his work.The work thus belongs to the period when Currin, along with other leading figures of his generation, contributed to the renewed interest in figurative painting and portraiture in the 1990s, drawing on models from art history and blending them with images and stereotypes from contemporary culture. Frame included